Community Involvement

In addition to providing representation to indigent defendants and juveniles, the Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) engages in other criminal justice-related endeavors. CJI has participated in challenges to pre-arraignment delay in the local court system, preventive detention of juveniles, the Massachusetts DNA registry, and the monitoring of phone calls and visits of incarcerated persons by the Connecticut Department of Corrections. CJI joined with a group of lawyers and advocates to seek clemency on behalf of battered women incarcerated in Massachusetts for killing their abusers.

For the past 8 years CJI has been an active member of Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ), a statewide organization of juvenile justice professionals and organizations whose mission is to strengthen the juvenile justice system by educating the public about juvenile justice policies. CfJJ promotes legislation and has offered legislative testimony on a variety of children's issues including juvenile justice and special education.